• Worker Termite, Inkjet print on cotton rag paper, 10x14in.

  • Soldier Termite, Inkjet print on cotton rag paper, 10x14in.

  • Queen Termite, Inkjet print on cotton rag paper, 10x14in.

  • Sateri, Inkjet print on cotton rag paper, 10x14in.

  • Termitary, Inkjet print on cotton rag paper, 10x14in.

  • Termitary Cross-section, Inkjet print on cotton rag paper, 10x14in.

The Soul of the White Ant II

2024. Video, color, sound, 10:30 min.; Series of six prints

The Soul of the White Ant was a lecture-performance I presented at the end of a residency in Lisbon in 2017. It examined the forces complicit in colonization through the structure of termite colonies using Eugène Marais’ The Soul of the White Ant. The work traced my research, incorporating mythologies embedded in Lisbon, Portugal and Goa, India (a former Portuguese colony), to examine Portugal's Age of Discovery and how the era's aesthetics are kept alive.

In 2024, I revisited the work in a video essay critiquing my initial considerations of termites as an invasive force. The aniconic form of the termitary (sateri) was worshiped by the indigenous people of Goa long before Indo-Aryan settlers appropriated it into Brahmanical traditions and built temples over sateri sites. This video embraces a reparative read of the termitary, exploring its ecological magic and resistance against colonial intervention.